[Sacred Succulents] News, Plant Sale & Auction, Upcoming Hiatus

Fri Sep 26 07:28:47 PDT 2025


	     [Note: do not respond to this email, use benkamm at monitor.net ]  

            Greetings,  
 It was not my intention for 4 months to pass between emails, or for 
important announcements to be made last minute, yet here we are...
 My summer was completely derailed by the unexpected death of my dear
friend—ethnobotanist and author Jonathan Ott. 
 I’d known Jonathan for 30+ years, we’d been closely collaborating
on a project to publish a deluxe edition series  of his books, but his
sudden death and lack of a will has thrown years  of work up in the
air and the future of the project is uncertain. I  spent much of the
summer navigating logistics around his death... we  sincerely hope to
honor our friend’s wishes and preserve his legacy by  eventually
publishing the entire series, but it could take years to  clarify
things with his estate... 
                                     _Further information below_.
 __ 
                                  The Autumn Equinox Plant
Auction-Fundraiser is now underway!                                   
                        For                                           
 the auction terms and                                            
listings see: https://sacredsucculents.com/auction-fundraiser         
                   _Please read the full terms before                 
                       bidding_.                                      
                 The auction closes next Monday, September 29, at
6:00pm                                 Pacific Standard Time.This is
the second and possibly the last auction of 2025…   __ 
         THE SPECIMEN PLANT LIST and website is updated with many new
offerings and the Biggest Sale of the Year!     __      
              _We will be taking a significant  hiatus from shipping
new orders placed after September 30_ (orders must  be confirmed with
us by this date + payment mailed/postmarked by October 1  for us to
ship this year—orders placed now will ship early to mid October). We
may not fully resume shipping until next  spring or even summer, 2026.

     This hiatus is required to give us time to fully focus on the 
infrastructure projects that are now absolutely _critical_ to
preserving  the high diversity of rare & endangered plants in our
nursery,  conservancy-research gardens and seed bank, and to
ultimately make available  the many hundreds of species we’ve never
released publicly. For more info, see below.
                      You can now help support our research,
conservation work and renovation projects crucial to Sacred Succulents
future via https://ssbp.betterworld.org
                   _Become a patron of our vital endeavors:_
https://ssbp.betterworld.org/donate
 __     
                      BOOKS: A few books are on On Sale for September,
both New and Rare & Used titles.__     
                      HUGE SALE on Specimen Plants this month + new
offerings:
                 Rare_ Trichocereus_—including totally new hybrids,
several coveted heirloom_ T. pachanoi _clones and other desiderata
available for the first time outside auction. New Succulents such as
Andean_ Tricho_-companions like_ Peperomia, Sedum _&_ Villadia, Puya;
_rare Copal (_Bursera_) & Frankincense (_Boswellia_) treelets;_ Aloe
haemanthifolia _babies, the endangered mini-pineapple _Ochagavia
elegans, Ephedra _species,_ Sceletium _species, etc._ _Fresh Andean
offerings of_ Bomarea, Calceolaria_, the coveted_ Colletia ulicina_,
large fruited Andean Elderberry (_Sambucus peruviana_) and _Rubus
_species; fantastically floriferous Neotropical Blueberries like
_Cavendishia, Satyria,_ caudiciform_ Ceratostema _&_ Macleania_, and
fructiferous_ Pernettya_. Plus Other Beneficials including an array of
showy Himalayan Huckleberry (caudexed _Agapetes_), the Giant Himalayan
Nettle _Girardinaria diversifolia_; rare Asian_ Rosa, Salvia _species,
and more!
                   Many plants have been selling out, so take
advantage of these offerings while you can!     ____     
                      More on the Upcoming Shipping Hiatus and
Renovations:
 Despite considerable effort and periodic plant auction-fundraisers,
we  are faced with the fact that we still have not had adequate time
or  means to make sufficient progress with the crucial tasks of
installing  irrigation and completing renovations throughout the
nursery and  conservancy-research gardens. As largely a one man show,
the daily  responsibilities of caring for thousands of plants in an
increasingly  erratic climate, while doing my best to keep up with the
website,  emails, packing orders, etc., leaves little space for
tackling such  extensive additional projects—especially with the
challenges of my  persistent, post-COVID cognitive impairment,  not to
mention the relentless stream of other crises we’ve navigated in 
recent years. Our lack of time for these vital, large projects, 
particularly the irrigation, has seriously curtailed our propagation 
work…while we continue to lose a worrying number of irreplaceable
plants  each season. Mitigating against extremes is no easy task with
the broad  diversity we cultivate. It’s now urgent that we focus our
full efforts  on such projects as are key to stabilizing, salvaging,
and propagating  the myriad rare & endangered plants in the nursery &
gardens.
_ For further information and how you can __help us to continue our
mission of conservation via cultivation -_
https://sacredsucculents.com/support-our-endeavors
                    __     
                    More about Jonathan Ott’s passing:     We  are
heartbroken to report the unexpected death of Jonathan Ott [June 1, 
1949 to July 3, 2025] due to complications with sepsis.
     The past couple years we’d been working together to fulfill his
dream of publishing a deluxe edition series of  his books, only a few
dozen of the first set in the series have been  produced so far. While
Jonathan got nearly all of the 12 planned volumes  print ready, he
died intestate and the future of this project is  currently uncertain.
www.jonathanottbooks.com
     I’ve know Jonathan for over 31 years, we met when I was barely
19  and his impact on my life has been tremendous. His death has been
quite a  blow and, among other things, demolished many of our plans
for the year. In addition to the loss of a close friend and mentor,
Jonathan  had proposed the publishing collaboration partially as means
to help  fund critical nursery renovations here, yet his unplanned
passing means  that I may never see a return on the countless hours
I’ve invested in  the project... I spent much of the summer
navigating logistics around  his death. We sincerely hope to honor our
friend’s wishes and preserve  his legacy by eventually publishing
the entire series, but it could take  years to clarify things with his
estate... To stay informed of developments, sign up for the email list
-  https://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/jonathanottbooks
 I miss Jonathan terribly, yet feel profound gratitude and joy for who
he was. The world is much richer for his time here. We will write more
about Jonathan in the future...
__ 
We continue to slowly add to our webpage of our Andean _Trichocereus_
BK accessions, see
https://sacredsucculents.com/trichocereus-bk-accession-info/__ 
_Gratitude for your ongoing support!_
	Ben Kamm & family
	Sacred Succulents: Rare & Endangered Beneficial Plants & Seeds
Conservation of Resilient Biodiversity through Propagation,
Dissemination and Education
PO Box 781
Sebastopol, CA 95473 USA
http://www.sacredsucculents.com

	_We do not take Paypal or other online payments. Still just cash,
check or money order to our PO box._
~~~~~~~~~~~~

	MICROCOSMS: A Homage to Sacred Plants of the Americas
A stunning hidden dimension of plants revealed through confocal
microscopy.
Ben Kamm is a contributing researcher and photographer to this unique
science-art project.
His commentary on the project -
https://www.microcosmssacredplants.org/commentary/ben-kamm/__

	LITTLE, BIG
In addition to caring for thousands of plants, the last few years I've
assisted in publishing the anniversary edition of my friend John
Crowley's 1981 award winning novel,_ Little, Big_. Erik Davis recently
posted an essay about the book in which I make an appearance:
https://www.burningshore.com/p/big-little-big
Stock is running low, but books can still be purchased:
https://store.deepvellum.org/products/little-big__If you wish to be
removed from this list, please unsubscribe the same you signed up:
http://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/sacredsucculents
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